Design Inc.

Marketplace for high-quality design work

Description

Design Inc. was a startup that linked clients to talented designers. Clients would post on the site the projects they needed to get done. Design Inc. allowed designers to autonomously send proposals for the projects they would like to work on while charging a small fee for it. The platform helped designers all over the world to find their dream projects and companies were happy to be able to choose from a talented pool of designers.

Stats

Category

Design

Country

United States

Started

In 2016

Closed

By 2017

Number of Founders

Two

Name of Founders

Bjoern Zinssmeister, Marc Hemeon

Number of Employees

Between 1 And 10

Number of Funding Rounds

1

Total Funding Amount

$2.3M

Number of Investors

No Data

Precise Cause of Failure

Bad Business Model

Business Outcome

Shut Down

Cause of Failure

Design Inc. reached market
saturation after some time. The number of projects and companies were not
increasing and the startup could not make enough revenue to cover operation
costs. This put the company in a low cash situation and they founder took the
decision to close it down.

Design Inc. CEO identified
a number of reasons that he believed contributed to the failure of his company.
He stated that he should have been more focused on the essentials of business,
which is getting more leads and profit. He also mentioned that a startup
founder should also test his assumptions and keep on optimizing the product in
every little way. Team members should also be encouraged to experiment without
fear.

Another broader issue that
is not exclusively linked to Design Inc. may be with the business model itself
since the design field is considered a top-end market where job posts are
scarce by nature. Too many designers compete for only a limited number of
design jobs, thus causing the market to saturate too soon. Another reason why
the company might have not witnessed a growth in its network could have been
due to the fact that although designers are introduced to the clients by Design
Inc. platform, in the end, they might decide to continue their business
transactions independently from the marketplace.

A big resource for entrepreneurs and startup owners, in which we have collected and analyzed why +100 big companies have failed. Learn from mistakes, and avoid being part of the 90% of businesses that fail.

Design Inc. was a startup that linked clients to talented designers. Clients would post on the site the projects they needed to get done. Design Inc. allowed designers to autonomously send proposals for the projects they would like to work on while charging a small fee for it. The platform helped designers all over the world to find their dream projects and companies were happy to be able to choose from a talented pool of designers.

Cause of Failure

Design Inc. reached market
saturation after some time. The number of projects and companies were not
increasing and the startup could not make enough revenue to cover operation
costs. This put the company in a low cash situation and they founder took the
decision to close it down.

Design Inc. CEO identified
a number of reasons that he believed contributed to the failure of his company.
He stated that he should have been more focused on the essentials of business,
which is getting more leads and profit. He also mentioned that a startup
founder should also test his assumptions and keep on optimizing the product in
every little way. Team members should also be encouraged to experiment without
fear.

Another broader issue that
is not exclusively linked to Design Inc. may be with the business model itself
since the design field is considered a top-end market where job posts are
scarce by nature. Too many designers compete for only a limited number of
design jobs, thus causing the market to saturate too soon. Another reason why
the company might have not witnessed a growth in its network could have been
due to the fact that although designers are introduced to the clients by Design
Inc. platform, in the end, they might decide to continue their business
transactions independently from the marketplace.